Post Arf1uxmb2eYunMU4RM by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) Post #ArexTd5pSTemzXBsrw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-02T23:38:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I have this odd kind of admiration for the truly terrible invasive species. "Invasives" turn all of the things that make human activities hostile to nature into their advantages. There is something delightfully subversive about it. Although, I still study them in hopes of protecting the wild diversity that they can destroy. When you dig into some of the things they have done to be successful a little awe is only natural.
(DIR) Post #AreySuZH6LVgqzBXhQ by trevorthetuba@mastodon.social
2025-03-02T23:49:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I agree, Brown Marmorated stinkbugs and asiatic bittersweet are awful, but one has to admire their tenacity
(DIR) Post #AreyZ4bch4MlitDoOW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-02T23:51:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@trevorthetuba I kind of hope if I can really understand them I might stand a better chance of finding a way to ... negotiate a truce.
(DIR) Post #AreycjTJDBaxKq4sS0 by Meowthias@mastodon.world
2025-03-02T23:51:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I root for wild horses because horses evolved in the Americas - I think they belong here.
(DIR) Post #AreyuGB8rRwJhGwDY0 by jmax@mastodon.social
2025-03-02T23:54:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Most if them will be the root families to re-diversify after this mass extinction.
(DIR) Post #ArezBnT8LHCvrqiR0K by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-02T23:58:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jmax ... yeah ...
(DIR) Post #ArezhwUoJbkr8BpPoe by claralistensprechen3rd@friendica.myportal.social
2025-03-02T23:59:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Lotsa luck with that. They don't do truces. It's world domination, full stop.
(DIR) Post #ArezhxWcUMnQK5gNH6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T00:02:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@claralistensprechen3rd @trevorthetuba IDK when you take so called "invasives" back to the little forest or jungle from whenst they were so rudely removed and let them go? They mostly fail. Like the most common roaches in human homes are total lightweights in the regions where they likely came from. They get eaten, they get out competed. They had to leave home to make it big.
(DIR) Post #ArezslL68TgLiNRdKq by davidaugust@mastodon.online
2025-03-03T00:05:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @claralistensprechen3rd @trevorthetuba interesting. Some humans have had similar dynamics in their fortunes.
(DIR) Post #Arf07tVq1vcHPJgSIq by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T00:08:39Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
A fact that isn't directly related, but that I think about often is how people who are *serious* about growing orchids use stereo-foam as substrate. Orchids are hard to raise from seed. The seeds are tiny and the operation is more like chemistry than gardening. Of course, at first, everyone always used cork bark to germinate: that is what they grow on in the wild. But someone figured out that styrofoam peanuts work better. That's how most are started. They add the moss later for cosmetics.
(DIR) Post #Arf0MQ3HqV8WNgFsOG by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T00:11:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
It's amusing to me that literal "hot house orchids" rejected the cork and thrive on a junk material that causes all kinds of problems (like micro plastics in the ocean.)They don't "eat" the styrofoam, sadly, just use it to anchor their roots, and it provides the right balence of moisture for many hard to grow species. Orchids are very strange plants. They also break a lot of rules.
(DIR) Post #Arf0dfheuNbxqSMiES by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T00:14:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Orchid fans will often lament this. As, if you have been trying to grow some tricky miniture orchid for years, finding out that you can do it, but it's gotta be sitting on a pick foam peanut is ... kind of disappointing. It's not as romantic as having it on a little slab of cork.But sourcing cork ethically is nearly impossible. And you can find the peanuts in the trash.
(DIR) Post #Arf0r7L9Sx9jKAFVwG by AqnD4iCHF7Tl3Kqmum.chremylus@imontheweb.net
2025-03-03T00:16:23.170Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird@sauropods.win had a friend growing up whose mom grew and crossed orchids, like 3 huge greenhouses worth.. complete w/ biolab full of petri dishes and jars. Looks like mycelium until you realize it's roots
(DIR) Post #Arf102rtSgvg3qoyFU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T00:18:26Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@chremylus It's a whole rabbit-hole. I think my cat, Pica for getting me on to other hobbies. But... yeah there is something about tiny baby orchids and getting them to take that's intoxicating. Pica thought so too. She ate my bulbophyllums!!
(DIR) Post #Arf1jtQusDbw7T44PI by jt_rebelo@ciberlandia.pt
2025-03-03T00:26:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird ethically sourced cork? Why is it nearly impossible? (Curious because my country is the number one world exporter of cork, by a wide margin for the 2nd place, AFAIK)
(DIR) Post #Arf1uxmb2eYunMU4RM by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T00:28:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@jt_rebelo OK. I may be misremembering something. There was some reason we couldn't get cork like 20 years ago. Let me amend that.
(DIR) Post #Arf3gMgmMJFTbYvhaa by jt_rebelo@ciberlandia.pt
2025-03-03T00:48:28Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird sure it is expensive (even here, it takes time, caring and specialized manual labour to harvest it, the cost reduction happens through industrialisation of the post-harvest processes and being able to use as much of the raw material as possible)
(DIR) Post #Arf3qxVUKFawgnhShk by paulc@mstdn.social
2025-03-03T00:50:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I was reading “orchids” as “orchids“ in this thread and finally realized my mistake in this post. For a good time go back to the beginning of this thread and read it making my mistake.
(DIR) Post #ArfsNvXpdZr5rsi6BU by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T10:16:37Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird I feel the same. Invasive species often are able to be invasive because they can live in human-disturbed environments that are difficult or impossible for many former native species. (The podcast Herp Highlights covers this frequently, because it's often difficult to get research money for (non-bird) reptiles and amphibians that aren't invasives. Similarly, the podcast arthro-pod covers invasives because the same applies to insects. )
(DIR) Post #ArfsW6VYlAHwBeXwX2 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T10:18:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@llewelly It rankles me that research money for arthropods is only focused on getting rid of them so much of the time. But, I still like the research, often the things learned apply more widely.
(DIR) Post #ArfuxBfLtGpRuYAWlE by faassen@fosstodon.org
2025-03-03T10:45:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebirdThere's a book that touches on this: "Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution". It advocates the idea of cities being new ecosystems, where cosmopolitan life forms make a home. Because a city while hostile to nature in some ways can also be a great host to it.
(DIR) Post #ArfvlgqcERDx6AWEVc by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-03-03T10:54:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird there's a similar issue in invertebrate (and also conodont) paleontology; much of the support for it is connected, in one degree or another, to its usefulness in biostratigraphy, and in turn, biostratigraphy's use in mining, especially fossil fuels.
(DIR) Post #ArgUBTR07Z6nT90JEW by marc_w@union.place
2025-03-03T17:20:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Yep. The African clawed frog is an impressive beast, able to live anywhere there's water, eat anything that will fit in their mouths, reproduce any time of year, and resist chytrid fungus. They've been released into the wild on every continent but one, perhaps after their common use in human pregnancy tests became obsolete.These little frogs are goddam monsters!